The present invention relates to cable raceway and particularly to a device plate mounted on the raceway.
Electrical and data cables and wires are carried along walls, ceilings and floors inside building structures by passing along trays or raceways which include a channel for carrying and guiding the cables and wires. The channel may have exits for the cables and wires and may have connections or fixtures at the channel for connecting devices to cables in the channel. An example of a cable raceway is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,185.
Usually, several cables and wires are carried through the raceway channel. Many raceways are divided into two channels by a divider running along the raceway channel for enabling separation of different cables and wires in the two channels. In a typical divided raceway, higher voltage wires pass along one side of the divider, e.g. for power transmission, and lower voltage wires pass along the other side of the divider, e.g. for communication wires and data transmission. The divider helps to prevent electrical interference between the different voltage wires, between different fixtures or device connections at the two sides of the raceway or between devices located at the two sides of the raceway or connected at fixtures or connections to cables or wires in the two sides of the raceway.
A typical cable raceway comprises a channel or channels with an open side into the building structure in which the raceway is mounted. The channel has a cover over the open side enclosing wires or cables in the channel. At intervals along the raceway, various electric cable supplied devices are connected by fixtures or connections on the raceway to the cables within the raceway. To facilitate the connections at those intervals, device plates are disposed in the cover of the raceway. The devices may be electrically plugged into a connection or fixture on the device plates and some devices are physically mounted on the device plate, and there is an electrical connection between the cable in the raceway and contacts of the device or the connection or fixture at the device plate.
Typically, power devices (higher voltage) and data devices (lower voltage) are mounted at a single device plate, and the device plate has openings or sockets for receiving the electrical devices themselves or the electrical plug connection from the device. With a divided raceway with a divider located between sides of the channel, the power device or its fixture, connection or socket is in the device plate at one side of the raceway divider and the data device or its fixture, socket or connector is in the device plate at the other side of the divider. Because the divider runs along the raceway, the two devices mounted to the single device plate or the two difference fixtures, connections or sockets at opposite sides of the divider are physically separated and electrically separated by the divider.
Some cautious engineers do not deem the separation by the divider in the raceway to be complete enough separation to avoid potential electrically interference.
There has been recognition of the value of not having the two devices, or the fixtures or connectors for those devices which are on opposite sides of the divider, i.e., the higher voltage device or the fixture therefor on one side of the divider and the lower voltage device or the fixture therefor on the other side of the divider, being positioned one above the other, that is at the same location along the length of the raceway. It has been recognized as desirable to separate the high voltage and low voltage devices not only at the opposite sides of the divider but as longitudinally spaced apart along the raceway. This has been accomplished in practice by placing two device plates next to each other in the length direction along the raceway, with one device plate receiving the higher voltage fixture, socket, or connection or device and the other device plate receiving the lower voltage fixture, socket, or connection or device. Each of the two device plates typically includes an additional unused fixture, socket or connection at the other divided side of the raceway, with no device connected there. This solution further separating the high and low voltage fixtures or connections is costly in terms of material, requiring two device plates for each device location and in terms of the labor of having to install two device plates.